User:NichidaiGroup5/sandbox

= Tameguchi =

Tameguchi (タメ口) is a sociolinguistic register in Japanese in which interlocutors address each other as equals. This register differs markedly from honorific speech and also from standard Japanese. Whereas honorifics are generally used to maintain social distances, tameguchi is often employed to express social kinship and familiarity. It is worth nothing the Korean language also has a non-honorific social register known as 반말 which is similar to tameguchi. Kataoka describes tameguchi as an indexical feature of Japanese "peer talk" and that reduces social distance. In particular, speaking to elders without standard politeness markers is an instance of tameguchi. However, as Hasegawa points out, ignoring standard politeness protocols often comes with social stigma.

Some dictionaries describe tameguchi as a way of addressing equals, ignoring social hierarchies based on age. Cope adds, "As tameguchi ignores the honorific rules of Japanese, it is considered unprofessional and unacceptable in the business world." (2013, p.6) Often it is considered rude to use tameguchi with social superiors. Some characteristic of tameguchi include:


 * Verbs are inflected in their plain dictionary forms without formal copulas. Hence, "This is a book" would be expressed as Kore wa hon da. (これは本だ.).


 * A lack of word beautification through honorific prefixes such as o- or go- before nouns. As a case in point, "The customer was a pain" would be stated as Kyaku wa kutsū datta. (客は苦痛だった.)


 * The absence of -san or -sama suffixes before names or titles. For instance, "The manager was late" would be plainly stated as Bucho wa okureta. (支配人は遅刻した.).

History
 * Honorific titles such as dono, senpai, or sensei are also avoided. Instead, terms such ~kun or ~chan are used.

The origins of this term are still debated. Tameguchi is often interpreted as a neologism of two words: tame and guchi.

The word guchi means something like "mouth" or "speech." Hence, "tameguchi" literally means "the speech of peers." Whereas honorifics are often used to express social distance, tameguchi is often distance from the other person, so it is necessary to express familiarity with something other than honorifics [supporting reference].

It is worth pointing out that the term "tame" began to be used by juvenile delinquents in the 1960s and the use of "tameguchi" did not become common until the 1970s.

The word "tame" meant "the same number (zoro-me)" in dice gambling. This is one possible source of the term "tameguchi."